Capturing the Moment

At the surface read to dive Today I had the rare opportunity to make a dive in a submarine here in Oahu. Atlantis submarines offer a chance to join the exclusive 100foot club without being trained in scuba diving. I was invited to go for a ride along to check out the operation. I have seen this kind of submarine in action over in Maui. While I was scuba diving on the wreck of the Carthaginian this company's sub came and check out the same wreck. I could see the tourists inside snapping photos. Now I had the opportunity to see how the other side feels. It is pretty amazing. Plane wreck seen from the sub YO-257 wreck  The pilot, sitting up in front, does all the maneuvering by sight. He has a giant bubble windshield, and a co-pilot at the rear giving him distances. The narrator for the trip sits up front spouting off information about the underwater area and the fish. The sub deftly moves between quite a few wrecks strewn about the bottom. Old shells of airplanes, a Kore...

Beautiful Malapascua Beach Adorable Beach Babies Everywhere Heidi and Dive Master J.N. Ornate Ghost Pipefish Orangutan Crab   If beautiful sand beaches, happy hours, friendly, laid back locals, and excellent diving are what you are after, then look no further than Malapascua Island in the Philippines. After flying into Cebu Int. Airport it is a three hour car ride to the tiny port of Maya. From there a 30 minute boat ride takes you across the normally calm channel and deposits you right on the beach in front of all the resorts. Each resort has its own bar, restaurant, and dive center. Heidi and I chose Ocean Vida since we had a package deal with Sea Explorer Divers already and that was the resort that houses that dive company. Denise's Pygmy Sea Horse  Malapascua has been a familiar name in the diving community because of its incredible macro wildlife. Sea horses, nudibranchs, sea snakes, and frogfish can be found here, especially on the nearby isla...

  Best of Maui: Scuba Dives While trying to put together a review of my time here in Maui it quickly became clear that it could not be contained in one post. All the great memories, hikes, dives, animal encounters, and other adventures all deserved their own post so what I am going to do instead is a series of "best of" posts.  I will start off with the best of Maui scuba diving. In my opinion these are the can't miss dive sites for the advanced scuba divers when you come to Maui. Some made the list for big wildlife encounters, others for tiny nudibranch encounters, and others still for incredible underwater topography. Read on to find 'the Big Three' scuba sites as well as a couple of my other favorites. First and Second Cathedrals, Lanai First Cathedrals Second Cathedrals  These two sites both boast enormous underwater caverns. Most dive companies depart from Lahaina harbor but Maui Dive Shop does leave from Ma'alaea harbor on select days. T...

Moku Ho'oniki Rock (Elephant Rock) "Fish Rain", an aptly named dive site  When adventurous scuba divers ask me where to go while they are here on Maui I tell them about the big three dives. Molokini backwall, Cathedrals on Lanai, and the Hammerhead shark dive at Moku ho'oniki rock on Molokai. Yet I had never done the hammerhead dive until today! And what a dive it was. The conditions were rough. 6ft seas with 15-20knot winds all the way across the Pailolo channel which separates the islands of Maui and Molokai. It is a live boat drift dive so the captain and crew have to safely get everyone off the boat while bucking from side to side in the heavy seas. Getting back on the boat was a whole different story. Only one dive company does this trip, Lahaina Divers . Heidi and I went with this outfit a month ago over to the island of Lanai to do some cavern diving at Second Cathedrals . And with my buddy Sean at the helm I knew we were in good hands. What I didn...